Improvement in ball-cartridges



L. WELLS.

Cartridge.

Patented Sept. 15, 1857.

No. 18,217. I

N.PETER$. PNQTOJJYMOGRAPNER, WASNXNGTON. D C- UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

LEMUEL WELLS, OF ASTORIA, NEW YORK.

IMPROVEMENT IN BALL-CARTRIDGES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 18,217, dated September 15 1857.

being bad to the accompanying drawing, form ing part of this specification, which represents a longitudinal central section of a ball-car-' tridge constructed according to my invention.

This invention consists in making the shell of a ball-cartridge of a piece of hard metal tube fitting into a seat, swaged, or otherwise prepared to receive it inside the bullet, by which construction several advantages are obtained, as are hereinafter fully set forth.

A is the bullet. a is the shell of the cartridge. b is a ring or disk of leather by which the rear of the-shell is closed. a is a pin secured in the bullet and extending through the center of the cartridge to carry the percussioncap, (I, the head of which is exposed through the opening hole in the ring or disk b.

In carrying out this invention, it is desira ble that the rear portion of the bullet shall be of cylindrical form, as shown in the drawing, or nearly so, in order that a cavity of proper form may be cast in it to receive the front end of the cylindrical shell a. After the ball is cast, the cavity in its rear should be swaged with a cylindrical-ended or only very slightly tapered swage to make it of the proper size to receive the shell and to form a good shoulder, c e, for the shell to be driven up to.

The shell may be made of a piece of tin plate rolled up and soldered, or of other light hardmetal tubing, and should be driven tightly into the cavity of the bullet. The disk or ring 11 is mserted tightly into the tubing.

This method of constructing the cartridge is very superior to any other method of constructing ball-cartridges with metal shells for smallarms. Such cartridges have been made with the shell forming part of the same casting as the leaden ball, but nothing like perfection in the casting could be insured by that method without making the space within too small to contain a charge of ordinary gunpowder without making the ball and shell unreasonably long, and no known method of attachinga hardmetal shell to the ball afl'ords the same facility for the manufacture of the cartridge or the same security. This mode of attachment makes the shell so much smaller than the ball as to leave the soft metal of the ball projecting beyond it in the form of a collar, which will prevent the hard metal of the shell coming in contact with and thereby injuring the bore of the piece. It also leaves room for the gases, resulting from the explosion, to get behind the shell, so that it will never fail to carry it out of the barrel after the ball. The invention is applicable whether the cartridge be fitted with the cap-spindle c or constructed to be fired by the ordinary method. It is applicable either to cartridges for breech-loading or those for m uzzle-loadin g tire-arms.

What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is- V The attachment of the hard-metal shell of a ball-cartridge to the bullet, substantially as herein described, by making it smaller than the bullet and. driving it into a cavity in the rear of the bullet.

LEMUEL wELLs.

Witnesses:

WM. TUscH, J. W. OooMBs. 

